Migration to Transifex.com

In February 2011, in order to make sure we have the best possible Fedora 15 release localized, we took a bold step in migrating our services to the upstream translation hub of Transifex.net.

Information on the move

The migration involves two changes:

1. The move to a new domain (transifex.net). This largely affects translators and should be ready early.
2. The upgrade from Tx v0.7.4 to 1.1-devel. This largely affects developers and should be ready before the translation deadline.

Information for language leaders

We are migrating our Transifex services to the upstream server of www.transifex.net. The old server (translate.fp.org) will stop accepting translations on 18-Feb-11. We are already in string-freeze period, so in order to contribute translations to Fedora 15, please follow the steps below.

1. Create your team on the new Transifex server. Navigate to http://fedora.transifex.net/projects/p/fedora/teams/. If your team is not listed, you should create it and become its coordinator. To do so, register on the website and login. At the above page you should see a button called "Request team". One of the admins will see your request and approve it shortly.
2. Manage your team information. Once your team is created by an admin, you'll be able to navigate to its page (e.g. /fedora/team/el/) and see an Edit button. Use it to manage your team information and members. You may add more than one maintainer/sponsor for your team using this form.
3. Notify your team members to join the new team. Send an email to your team and request them to register on fedora.transifex.net. They should navigate to your team page and click the "Request to join this team!" button. You, as the leader, will receive an email notification when this happens. By visiting your team page, you'll be able to approve or reject team join requests. On Friday, Feb 18 we will disable translation submissions on translate.fpo and enable them on transifex.net. All translations should happen from now on on transifex.net.
4. Viewing Translation completion statistics for Fedora Releases. Fedora translations happen on this page: http://fedora.transifex.net/projects/p/fedora/. In the latest release (Fedora 15) you'll see a list of languages. Clicking on your language will show your language statistics. We (the Fedora L10n gardeners) will soon create more Fedora minor releases, such as "Fedora 15 Docs" etc.
5. Start translating on Transifex.net.

• Click on the statistics bar to get a popup with information about the translation of this file/resource.
• Team members will see a "Translate Now!" button which will open up the online translation editor.
• When translating online, the resource is auto-locked by you and other people will be warned that you are working on it. You can also manually lock the file to translate offline.
• Make sure you keep regular backups of files, since translations are not stored regularly in VCS any more. You may use the handy command-line client for this.

Information for developers

The version upgrade largely affects developers. This would happen at some point even if we stayed on fpo. It largely only affects developers, since the translation interface has not changed much (considerable speed improvements and minor User Experience enhancements will be noticed though). Developers will now use a command-line tool (transifex-client) to export translation files from Transifex, instead of seeing git commits. This can be integrated into Makefile rules for automation. This needs to be communicated before the translation deadline.

The workflow: Developer commits his POT file in his repo. Transifex watches an HTTP link to that POT file and auto-updates its english strings regularly. Translators work inside Transifex, without git commits being issued. Before pushing to koji, the packager runs 'tx pull' (either manually or with Makefile rule) to refresh his translation files. Translation files do not need to live in the git repo

More info about the upgrade and the workflow changes can be found here: http://help.transifex.net/user-guide/one-dot-zero.html

Migration Roadmap

1. [DONE] Suggest migration to public Fedora L10n list
2. [DONE] Create first set of projects to demo new services. Include a Docs project.
3. [DONE] Meeting with L10n team
4. [DONE] Meeting with various teams to evaluate concerns, ensure no blockers exist, decide final dates
5. [DONE] Migrate all Fedora "Core" projects (ones affected by the String freeze)
6. [DONE] Notify all Language Leaders to create teams on Transifex.net & notify their translators to move
7. [DONE] Create page to store all documentation for the move (https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/L10N/Transifex.net)
8. Send email to devel-announce. Remind that we are in string-freeze!
9. Publish blog posts on Planet to raise awareness
10. Friday 18-Feb: Disable submissions on translate.fpo
11. Friday 18-Feb: Refresh translation files on Txn (source and translations)
12. Package Transifex client in Fedora (f15, f14, el6, maybe el5)
13. Notify all Fedora "Core" developers to use the tx client & update their Makefiles
14. Fedora Docs to migrate their projects manually before their string freeze
15. Notify all fedorahosted developers to migrate their projects.
16. Fedora L10n admins to create new "releases" for Fedora Docs, Others
17. Post-translation deadline: Remind developers to re-package their application to include translations (using the client)

Getting help

You should be able to find a lot of information on our revamped documentation section:

 http://help.transifex.net/user-guide/

Feel free to ask for questions on #fedora-l10n, or use the "Feedback" button on the right-side of the website.

If you feel there is a feature missing, please help us document this and we will consider putting it on our roadmap. If you want it really soon, please consider either helping with the development (it's open source, yay!) or getting us in touch with a sponsor.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why now and not wait for the next version?

We are lacking resources to manage our current infrastructure, and the L10n group decided that the Fedora 15 translations are in danger. All related Fedora groups (L10n, Infrastructure, Packaging, Docs and Board) have concluded that there is little risk in the move.